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In-house marketer or outsourcing: the honest cost comparison

Salary is only part of it. Employer NI, software, training and the eight weeks before anything goes live all count.

In-house marketer or outsourcing: the honest cost comparison

The question usually arrives as a salary comparison, which is where it goes wrong. A marketing executive at 32,000 does not cost 32,000, and an agency at 1,500 a month is not doing the same job either.

I have been on both sides of this. Below is the full cost of each route for a UK logistics business, and the situations where I would genuinely recommend the hire over the retainer.

The real cost of the hire

Take a marketing executive with two or three years experience, somewhere in the Midlands or the North, at 32,000. The annual cost looks more like this:

  • Salary: 32,000
  • Employer National Insurance: roughly 3,500 to 4,000
  • Pension at 3%: around 960
  • Software: design tools, scheduling, email platform, stock imagery, analytics. 1,200 to 3,000
  • Equipment: laptop and phone, 1,200 amortised
  • Recruitment: 3,000 to 6,000 if you use an agency, in year one
  • Training and development: 500 to 1,500

Call it 41,000 to 45,000 in year one and around 38,000 thereafter. That is 3,200 a month, before you count management time.

The salary is about three quarters of the cost. Everyone budgets the three quarters and is surprised in March.

The eight weeks nobody budgets for

A new marketing hire in a logistics business is not productive on day one, and the reason is not their ability. It is that they have to learn a technical industry before they can write about it.

Realistically: two weeks on notice periods and onboarding, three or four weeks understanding the difference between what you sell and what your competitors sell, then a few weeks producing work that needs heavy correction.

Two months before output is dependable is normal and fine. It should just be in the plan, because a business that expected content in week two concludes the hire failed.

The skills problem

Marketing a forwarding business needs copywriting, graphic design, LinkedIn strategy, email, website work, SEO, photography direction and reporting.

One person at 32,000 is genuinely good at two of those. Usually copywriting and scheduling, sometimes design. The rest gets done adequately or gets outsourced anyway, at which point you are paying for both.

This is the honest case for an agency: not that it is cheaper, but that it gives you five specialists on part-time hours instead of one generalist on full-time hours.

What outsourcing actually costs

A content and LinkedIn retainer for a logistics business runs 750 to 2,500 a month depending on volume. Say 1,500, which is 18,000 a year.

Against that:

  • Starts producing inside two weeks, because the sector knowledge is already there.
  • No NI, pension, holiday, sick pay or recruitment fee.
  • Covers writing, design and reporting at once.
  • Cancellable with thirty days notice after the initial term.

And the genuine drawbacks:

  • Not sitting in your office hearing what happened on the Rotterdam job this morning.
  • Cannot chase your sales team for material or attend a customer meeting at short notice.
  • Shares attention with other clients.
  • Needs an internal contact who responds, or it stalls.

Which one, for which business

Hire in-house when: you turn over more than about fifteen million, marketing has a defined plan already, there is enough work to genuinely fill a week, and someone senior can manage the role. Also when the work depends on being in the building, such as constant photography or event-heavy activity.

Outsource when: you are between two and fifteen million, you need multiple disciplines, you want to start this month rather than in two, or you have tried a junior hire and watched them plateau because nobody could develop them.

Do both when: you are large enough for a marketing manager who owns strategy and internal coordination, with production handled outside. This is the most effective arrangement I see, and it is also the most expensive.

The version that fails

Hiring a marketing assistant at 24,000, giving them no plan, no budget and no manager who understands marketing, and expecting enquiries by month three.

They spend six months doing social media, get no support, leave for a company with a proper marketing function, and the business concludes that marketing does not work for logistics.

I have watched that cycle three times. It costs about 30,000 and eighteen months, and it puts the business off trying again for years.